Ronald Stevens, a WSSU senior and president of the Sports Management Club, knows firsthand how important it is to make a good impression, especially when it comes to a prospective employer. He also understands that you should always be dressed to impress, because you never know if the person you meet today will be your boss tomorrow.
“We kind of really shoot ourselves in the foot when we don’t know how to present ourselves,” he said. We already have one strike against us.”
Steven’s attitude is one that Dennis Felder, associate professor of Human Performance and Sports Science, has tried to instill in all members of the Sports Management Club. However, not everyone agrees with Felder’s idea of what defines appropriate dress and grooming.
Two freshmen found themselves at odds with Felder and the club’s rule when they refused to adhere to what’s known as the “tenth rule” and cut their dreadlocks. According to Felder, this rule covers everything from wearing a hat or doo-rag indoors to particular hairstyles.
“I tell my students that you can’t come into an educational building with a hat on your head or a doo-rag because they might do the same thing going to a job interview, and I can’t take that chance,” said Felder, who has worked at WSSU since 1984.
In the end, the two freshmen have been allowed to remain in the academic program, but they are not members of the club.
What is and what’s not appropriate dress in the workplace and in school is an ongoing controversy, not only at WSSU but also across the nation. Numerous businesses and institutions adopt dress codes that limit, for example, the length of beards and hair for safety reasons. Outside of the U.S., in countries such as France, there has been legislation passed banning Muslim school girls from covering their faces with veils.
Here in the U.S., from a legal perspective, styles that are worn because of religious or cultural beliefs are protected under U.S. law. Rastafarians, for example, wear dreadlocks as an insignia of their religion, which originated in the Jamaica in the 1930s. But for others, such as actress Whoopi Goldberg, dreads are an expression of a personal preference.
The EEOC, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of l964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals on account of their religion, birthplace, ancestry, culture or linguistic characteristics common to a specific ethnic group. This would include discrimination in hiring, firing and other terms and conditions of employment. Title VII has been broadly interpreted, and it has focused on physical characteristics, such as hair texture or skin color.
Dreadlocks have been a contentious issue, particularly in the workplace. The Dallas police department stripped two dozen police officers of their positions because of dreadlocks and other “unconventional” hairstyles. The Dallas officers, and many others who have lost their jobs because of dreadlocks, have countered with lawsuits, alleging that their employers violated their religious rights.
Popular books have emerged to help people navigate the rough waters between accepted and banned dress styles. Harriette Cole, owner of a New York-based image company, wrote “How To Be: A guide to Contemporary Living African American” and Ann Marie Sabath, wrote “Beyond Business Casual: What to Wear to Work to Get Ahead.”
The online career site, www.salary.com., has even weighed in on the issue of dreadlocks. An African-American woman interviewing for a position as an executive assistant at a corporation asked Salary’s fictitous “Annette” whether she could wear dreadlocks or braids. Annettee answered with “plan carefully, if you believe your prospective employer will take issue.” She added: “. . . Convince the interviewer that, as somebody who be close to a key executive, you hold the highest personal standards, meticulous attention to detail and self respect.”
Stevens said he has no problem abiding by the regulations about appearance, because he understands that Felder has his best interests at heart. Plus, he has opened so many doors of opportunity for him and other students.
“I’ve had networking opportunities, ” Stevens said. “I’m meeting influential people, people with connections to the sports industry. I’ve gone to the CIAA Tournament for a weeklong internship, and this is all through Dr. Felder and his connections.”
Jason Clemens, a 20-year-old junior in the sports management program, somewhat agrees. He supports individual expression, but he believes there is a limit.
“There’s a time and a place for everything,” Clemens said. “My thing is, when you’re on a college campus, you never know who’s walking around. I just don’t think it’s smart for an individual to have two big old earrings in their ears when they’re talking to a big-name athletic director who just happened to be on campus that day.”
Felder is unbending in his approach. “No student can ever make the statement that they don’t know what to do in order to be successful in this field,” he said. Because, he added, they’ve been given clear rules.
The department takes students on two major trips. The first trip is to Savannah, Georgia in February for the 14th Annual Sport Management Conference. There, students will come face-to-face with experts in the field of sports management.
“We believe in exposing them to professionals to let them know that what we’re saying is true,” said Felder. For the second major trip, Felder allows the students to choose locations. “They choose a city with an NBA team, and we get a management professional to do a presentation to our majors to let them know what they do in their careers and what [the students] must do as graduates, we go to NBA games, and we visit graduate schools.”
Aaron Federspiel, an assistant football coach at WSSU and former sports management major, admires Felder.
“He’s a little different as far as your average professor’s concerned,” Federspiel said. “I think all of them have their students’ best interests at heart, but very few of them pull you aside and say what’s on their minds. He gets the job done, which is graduating his students and getting them jobs.”
For this reason, Federspiel respects the controversial tenth rule, both as a student and as a graduate.
“I think they’re great rules because if you’ve been around Dr. Felder, you know he preaches that all the time. There are few jobs where they’ll hire you with braids, earrings, or your pants hanging down,” he said. “You’ve got to present that good image.”
Federspiel added that he couldn’t think of a single graduate from the program that does not have a job. “That says a lot right there,” he said.